It is increasingly recognized that the economic cost of a risk is greater to the insured than to the insurer, and therefore the transfer of risk can create value for the insured poor. But is there is sufficient opportunity for the poor to transfer risks to insurers? This article identifies some...

Community-Based Health Insurance (CBHI) (a.k.a. micro health insurance) is a contributory health insurance among rural poor in developing countries. As CBHI schemes typically function with no subsidy income, the schemes' expenditures cannot exceed their premium income. A good estimate of...

This report is based on information collected in two districts of Nepal (Banke and Dhading) in early 2009 and concerns the launch of community-based micro health insurance units for members of Nirdhan and DEPROSC, two grassroots microfinance NGOs. The study entailed a household survey of 2,008...

This paper reports on two voluntary, contributory, contextualized, community-based health insurance (CBHI) schemes, launched in Dhading and Banke (Nepal) in 2011. The implementation followed a four stage process: initiating (baseline survey), involving (awareness generation and engaging...

Focusing on poor people in low-income countries (LICs) entails a price constraint for those planning to supply health insurance. The challenge is to price health insurance at a level that ensures a balance between expenditure and income, at least in the long term, and remains affordable and...

Micro health insurance units (MIUs) reduce negative financial consequences of healthcare costs for people who cannot access to formal and affordable health insurance. In order to survive, MIUs need capital to cover their outlier costs (whose probability of occurring is low but not zero). The...